Portland and beyond!

Tag Archives: Ponds

Directions: Take I-205 North to exit 27. Merge onto Highway 14 east and follow it for about 12 miles. Take a right at the sign for Steigerwald National Wildlife Refuge.

This is one of our favorite places to go to watch birds and get some quick exercise. We try to get out here multiple times a year and it never disappoints.

Get on the gravel trail next to the bathroom and follow it past an open grassy marsh area. You may see a few ducks or geese in the water, we saw a young vole along the grass here on this visit which was a first for us!

Next enter a small wooded area and follow the path as you pass along another marsh area to your right and come to a split in the trail. We went through the gate to the left (closed Oct-Apr) and followed the trail as it wound back around to the end of refuge and onto the bike trail. Go right here and pass the Purple Martin houses, following the bike trail for a while until you see a trail off to the right that takes you back into the refuge.

Next you’ll come to a bridge over Redtail lake. We saw blue-winged teals, mallards, great blue herons, and bullfrogs. After crossing the bridge follow the trail to another bridge and you’ll be back to the seasonal junction. From here you can head back out the way you came in.

Directions: Take I-5 north to exit 14. Go left at the intersection after getting off the freeway. Follow the road for about 3 miles through downtown Ridgefield. Go right at an intersection with Main St and drive for about a mile until you see a sign for the Carty Unit of the Refuge. Follow the gravel road to the parking area.

From the parking area cross the bridge over the railroad tracks and follow the ramp down to the gravel trail. Follow the trail past the plankhouse and take a left at the trail junction.

The trail goes past duck lake and winds around as you go over a small footbridge. You’ll enter a treelined area and in the spring you can see a lot of birds in this area. We lucked out and briefly saw a Virginia Rail. Keep following the trail and you’ll see Carty Lake off to your left.

The trail continues and heads left, with the lake off to your left as well. The trail goes all the way to the end of the lake. Head back out the way you came in.

Since you already paid the entrance fee make sure you head to the ‘S’ Unit of the refuge a few miles away. You can take the driving tour where there is a LOT of wildlife to see.

Directions: Take 26 west to exit 57. Go left and drive for about 1.5 miles, take a right onto Zion Church Road. Drive for a little over 3.5 miles (Zion will become Cornelius Schefflin Rd.) and get onto Verboort Rd at the roundabout. In about a half mile you will come to a second roundabout, get on Martin Road here. Drive for 2 miles where you will come to highway 47, go left. Drive for about a mile and take a left onto Fernhill Road. Follow the signs for the parking area.

Fernhill Wetlands is a great place to view wildlife. The trails are all really easy to follow and go around two ponds/wetland areas off to the right (towards the road) and by another wetland area and a more heavily landscaped area.

We did a couple loops around the marsh area closest to Fernhill Road. Here we saw countless great blue herons, egrets, coots, marsh wrens, red-winged blackbirds, mallards, and nutria. I think this is the most herons we’ve seen in once place- it was crazy! We also saw a cormorant eat and LARGE fish!

Over on the other side we saw geese, tree swallows, bald eagles (plus a giant nest!), yellow-rumped warblers, pintails, and green-winged teals.

All of the trails are wide and very flat. We were running out of daylight or we would of stayed here for easily another hour or two. The overly groomed area closest to the parking lot was a little odd. Almost looked a little fake but other than that this place is great.

Directions: Directions: Drive I-84 to the Fairview exit. Take a right at the signal and follow Fairview Parkway to Halsey Street. Take a left on Halsey and take a right onto Market Drive. Follow Market Drive to Village Street and take a right. Then take a left onto Park Lane where you will see Fairview City Park.

This trail is very easy to follow, is well maintained, and great for all ages. The whole trail is gravel and there are two ponds. You can go all the way around the main pond and part way around the smaller one.

This area has a decent amount of wildlife- you will see a lot of different birds (kingfishers, geese, mallards, coots, scrub jays, kinglets, etc.), nutria, and frogs.

There were a few people riding their bikes but it’s mainly other people walking and dogs.

The trail wraps around a Target store on a quiet trail and under an overpass. It continues on through a slightly marshy open area with large power poles before you reach the ponds. There isn’t anything too exciting with this trail, it’s best if you want a quick walk, have kids, or enjoy bird watching.

The parking area at Oaks Bottom is notorious for break-in’s and we had a problem with a man basically telling us he was going to break into our car as soon as we left, we even saw the slim jim in his backpack 🙄. We wont be parking in this main parking lot ever again, it’s too bad because this behavior may make it to where people don’t visit Oaks Bottom. We hope you still visit and we would recommend parking at Oaks Bottom Park.

Directions: From the intersection of SE 17th and Powell, head south on 17th. Cross Holgate and McLoughlin, and head into Sellwood. Turn right on SE Bybee. Bybee turns into SE 13th, follow 13th. Turn right onto Sellwood which veers into SE 7th. You’ll see the parking area for Oaks Bottom Park.

From the parking area get on the trail that heads downhill. Once at the end of this hill go right and go to a split in the trail. This hike can be done as a loop, going left here will get you on the Springwater Trail first, going right has you entering the refuge first. Either way you choose loops around and ends back at this junction. Fair warning…on the weekend there is a large train that runs right along the Springwater Trail and it is VERY loud. Because we were here during the time the train runs we decided to make this an out-and-back hike. We went right at the junction and entered into the refuge. You’ll immediately be following along a marshy area where there are a lot of water birds. We saw mallards, pintails, coots, and geese.

The trail switches from packed dirt and rocks to boardwalk as you follow along. There is a viewing platform out to the marsh and Oaks Park, we saw a few great blue herons and an eagle here. As we continued hiking we saw a brown creeper, bushtits, crows, scrub jays, a hummingbird, and golden-crowned sparrows.

The trail is very easy to follow and you will pass by the Portland Memorial Mausoleum, it has large paintings on it. Eventually you’ll come to a junction, you can turn around here or continue left and visit the tadpole pond.

This is a great hike for wildlife viewing and would be great for kids as well. The trail is very easy and there is a lot to look at along the way.

Directions: Take I-5 north to exit 14. Go left at the intersection after getting off the freeway. Follow the road for about 3 miles through downtown Ridgefield. Go right at an intersection with Main St and drive for about a mile until you see a sign for the Carty Unit of the Refuge. Follow the gravel road to the parking area.

Take the path that follows the bridge over the train tracks and curves down into the refuge. Following the path as it passes a plank house you can take a left a follow the trail that takes you by Duck Lake and winds back in to where you’ll come to a seasonal closure.

Back at the plank house stay straight/right and follow the trail until you see a side trail with a hiker marker on your right. Take this path through the trees and eventually come to Boot Lake. You can’t walk around the lake so keep following the main trail as you gain a bit of elevation and get a look down into the marshy wetland area. Loop back around and down where you will be back on the main trail that takes you back past the plank house to your car.

Since you’ve already paid the refuge entrance fee you should drive out of the Carty Unit and head for the ‘S’ Unit section of the Refuge. This is an auto tour from Oct- Apr and we really enjoyed it. We were able to see great blue herons, nutria, deer, hawks, a kestrel, and many small birds.

Make sure to pick up a brochure at the pay station/trailhead at the Carty Unit. It has maps of the whole refuge and lots of great information.

Directions: Drive I-84 east to La Grande, go north on Highway 82 and follow it into the town of Joseph. Once in Joseph follow Main St. through to the south end of town where the road curves and turns into 8th St. The Park is on the right.

We took a little trip out to Eastern Oregon and this was our first stop. We did an evening hike which was great for wildlife viewing.

From the small parking area head up the dirt path that has a few longer switchbacks and takes you to the top of a small hill. You get views down into a meadow and the Wallowa Mountains off in the distance. The trail soon heads back downhill and follows along the meadow and Silver Lake Ditch, we saw a few deer here which was great. There were many birds in the trees along the trail as well.

Soon you’ll come to a split in the trail, we went right towards Knight’s Pond that you can walk around. We also took the trail to the left of the pond and walked along a offshoot of the Wallowa River. Both the pond and the stream are very pretty, there are a couple small bridges over both.

From here we wondered around a little bit and then headed out the way we came in. This whole area is very scenic with the mountains, pond, and stream. Add in the deer and how quiet it was and we were very happy we decided to check this place out.

Make sure to stop and read some of the informational signs to learn about the history of this beautiful area!

We were here during some pretty intense wildfire smoke and can’t wait to come back when it’s clear out, to get even better views of the Wallowa Mountains. The smoke did make for a pretty great sunset though!

Directions: From downtown Portland take Highway 26 to exit 57 (Glencoe Road). Turn left and follow this road that eventually turns into Hillsboro Highway for about 6 miles. You will see signs for Jackson Bottom. Take a left into the wetland, there is a building for the wetland and clean water services building with a parking area.

Before you head out grab a map at the information kiosk.

From the parking area head to the wooden staircase that takes you down to the Tualatin River. We followed along this trail for a while stopping at the viewpoints and ending at Vic’s Grove, there was a lot of wild rose and a few birds in this area. Head back from Vic’s Grove and go right at the fork where you walk along Kingfisher Marsh. You can’t see much of the marsh from this side, it’s got a lot of plant growth surrounding it. Soon you’ll reach a bridge over a small stream that takes you to Pintail Pond.

You can go all the way around Pintail Pond. We saw a good amount of birds here, there are a lot of swallow houses on poles so they are all over. Down along the edges of the pond we saw a family of spotted sandpipers and a few killdeer. As we continued on we came to a group of quail and a few mourning dove. They also have a huge osprey nest and we were able to see them flying around.

After finishing the Pintail Pond loop head back out and go north towards a bird blind that looks out over an unnamed marsh area. We saw a large group of american white pelicans as well as cormorants here. Keep following the main trail and go left where you walk in between two marsh areas. Here we saw a black-headed grosbeak and a sora. Keep following this trail uphill where it takes you to the education center and the parking area.

This is a great place for kids and bird watchers. There’s a lot of different areas that attract a good amount of birds.

Directions: Drive I-5 to exit 228, turn right onto OR-34 W and follow it for about 9.5 miles. Turn left onto OR-45 Bypass and just less than a mile later merge onto OR-99W. Follow this road until you see signs for the refuge, where you will turn onto Finley Road. Follow this gravel road a short distance where you will enter the refuge on the left.

This is a large wildlife refuge with lots of different hiking trails. Some are open year-round and some are only open from April to October. In this post we’ll be talking about three of the trails.

Homer Campbell Memorial Trail- 1 mile

This is an out and back trail on boardwalk that takes you to an observation blind. The boardwalk takes you through the Muddy Creek riparian area that is full of ash trees. We saw quite a few Wood Ducks in the wooded area. When we reached the blind we saw Tundra Swans and Canada Geese out in Cabell Marsh. We also saw many Song Sparrows in the trees right around the blind.

Just past this trailhead is the Fletcher House and an old red barn, they are both worth a short stop.

Woodpecker Loop Trail- 1.1 miles

This is a lollipop trail, the trail heads into the woods at an even grade, soon you will start the loop by heading right and crossing over a small footbridge. From here the trail starts to head uphill, it’s nothing too steep. You will come to an observation deck that’s built around a large oak tree that gives you a nice view of the refuge. Continue following the loop through and open field area to a small seasonal pond. From here you head back into a more heavily wooded area, the trail starts to drop down and takes you to the end of the loop where you follow the trail back to your car.

This trailhead is very close to the refuge headquarters, they have a small gift shop and bathrooms here. There is also a few feeders and plants that attract many birds. We saw Rufous Hummingbirds, Mourning Doves, an Acorn Woodpecker, and many Tree Swallows.

McFadden’s Marsh Trail- .30 mile

This short trail is located on the far side of the refuge, there are a few ponds that are worth stopping at along the road on the way.

This short gravel and boardwalk trail takes you along McFaddens Marsh to a observation blind. We saw an Egret, Canada Geese, and Red-Winged Blackbirds in this area.

We will definitely be back this spring or summer to check out the seasonal trails.

Distance: 1-8+ miles, depends on the season and which trails you decide to take.

Elevation: Depends but there seems to not be too much elevation in any one trail.

Difficulty: Easy

Pet Friendly: Dogs are NOT allowed in the refuge

Good For: All ages

Bathrooms: Yes

Parking Fee: None

Seasons: All

Popular: Yes

Overall: Great birdwatching, excited to see what birds we can see in other seasons.

The Rhododendron Garden is located on 28th Avenue, across from Reed College in the Eastmoreland neighborhood.

This is more of a walk than a hike but it’s still a nice place to go to get outdoors for a while.

From the entrance take the paved path and switchback once where you go under a bridge and come to a pond. There are lots of ducks here and sadly it looks like the big willow tree that was by the bridge didn’t make it through the winter storms. Continue on the path and you will round a corner and start to see the golf course across the water. The path here is gravel and takes you to another pond with even more ducks, you may even see a nutria if you have the patience to hang around for a while.

After crossing the long bridge go left and down along the pond, pick up the path as it goes back up into the rhododendrons. There will be a fence and stream to your left and a grassy area to your right. As you continue to follow this trail it will round a corner and come to an area with cattails and reeds, you can see more of the golf course across the water here as well. Continuing around you’ll be following along the water as it loops back to the long bridge. From here just continue to follow the path back to your car. There are lots of side trails along the way to check out, the garden is beautiful and a great place to explore.

Some of the birds we saw were herons, ruddy ducks, mallards, humming birds, geese, coots, wigeons, and wood ducks.

Distance: 2 miles (you can do more or less, depends on which trails you take)